It was a bright winter afternoon in sunny California where it is almost summer all year round! Our next adventure took us to beautiful St. Regis Monarch in Dana Point where we photographed Grace and Jon’s amazing wedding! Every detail about this wedding was absolutely stunning. Everything was taken into consideration when this event was planned out from the floral arrangement, beautiful outfits, and my favorite part – the food! Grace and Jon hosted a very intimate wedding ceremony with all their beloved friends and family and partied the night away with style!

To kick start this wedding, we started off at Grace’s suite with all her lovely ladies while they relaxed in the morning during their preparation, while Jon and his boys finished off the final touches to the wedding. There were plenty of mimosas, snacks, and an abundant of laughter that filled the room. Each photo was picture perfect and captured the crazy and touching moments throughout each session of their wedding. During their preparation, we took Grace’s unique wedding dress to St. Regis’ famous Hall of Mirrors for a fine detail photo of all the intricacies of her wedding gown. Once everyone was dressed to impress, we ran around all over the venue for their wedding photography session with some room to relax in between and a bit of breathing space before the wedding ceremony. During the ceremony, all eyes were on Grace as she gracefully walked down the aisle and onto the alter where Jon eagerly waited. A few kind exchange of words during the vows and sealed it off with a kiss! During cocktail hour, St. Regis presented all the best horderves for all the guests to snack on right before the grand doors opened up to the reception hall. The crowd roared as Grace and Jon’s grand entrance and showed off some sweet moves on the dance floor right before the rest of the crowd joined in and showed off their fancy footwork too! There were many speeches were given with plenty of tears from laughter and joy throughout the night. Once dinner concluded, everyone burned off some more calories with A LOT more dancing! Now I present, Grace and Jon’s amazing wedding photo highlights from St. Regis.

I hope you all enjoyed their wedding photos as much as we did. Congratulations again to the both of you, Grace and Jon. It was an absolute honor to be your wedding photographers and record such a great milestone in your lives at St. Regis Monarch!

For every wedding that we photograph, there is always an unexpected surprise with twists and turns in every corner. For this next wedding hosted at beautiful Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica, Louise was an opera singer and WOW can she sing during their reception. I will not get too far ahead of myself and skip the details from the rest of the wedding since there were also a lot of exciting events that took place as well.

Louise and the girls started off their morning with mimosas and snacks during their hair and makeup session, while Paul and his boys finalized the details at the reception hall. Since the boys suited up first, they decided to go on a joy ride in their sweet 57′ Cadillac, top down, and basked in the amazing sun and sea breeze. Louise hurried up and jumped in her beautiful wedding dress and joined the fun downstairs with the boys and also took a cruise down Santa Monica too! If the Cadillac was not eye catching enough, a beautiful bride with her veil that blew with the wind did the trick as we slowly cruised around the beach! One shot after another, their wedding photos is quite a good example of a fun California beach wedding should look like.

Once we wrapped up the wedding photography session with everybody, we sent them off to get married along the beach! It was an intimate wedding along with curious bystanders quietly watched on the side and tried to photograph a little piece of the event for their memories. Once their vows were exchanged and rings were placed in their fingers, they let our some monarch butterflies as a nice wedding gesture. Unfortunately, since their wedding was during winter season, the butterflies did not want to wake up! Paul patiently tried for a few minutes until at least one finally woke and flew away. Despite the slight miscalculation, everyone had a hoot.

The crowd’s roar filled the reception hall when Louise and Paul made their grand entrance. Louise settled everyone down and sang one amazing solo for Paul as her wedding gift to him. No microphones or speakers were needed for such a powerful set of lungs! A few tears rolled down the guests’ eyes while everyone quietly enjoyed her voice. Her solo was then followed by a few fellow singers, speeches, and dinner. Once everyone had their fill, the dance floor opened up and all their wedding guests showed off their best moves for the rest of the night! Enjoy.

Remember last year during the summer heat in Los Angeles? For those to do not, it was HOT! Laura and Adrian hosted their wedding during one of the weekends during this heat wave at beautiful Rancho Las Lomas. Despite the temperature, everybody laughed it off and had a blast while constant refreshments were delivered to keep everyone at the wedding cool.

Laura and her ladies started their morning with plenty of mimosas and snacks during their preparation in the bridal suite while the Adrian and his boys suited up nicely and kicked back a few beers in the shade. Once everyone finished their preparation, we roamed around Rancho Las Lomas for some amazing wedding photos before their two part ceremony. The photo shoot started off with Laura and Adrian’s “first look” and as expected, Adrian was shocked and amazed how beautiful Laura looked in her wedding dress. Throughout the photo shoot with the wedding party, everyone had such beautiful smiles and just let loose. With such good company, the summer’s heat did not cross anyone’s mind; at least not mine! After we concluded the photo shoot, the wedding party prepped up and changed for their tea ceremony.

The wedding ceremony started off with an intimate crowd of just family and their closest friends. The tea ceremony was to honor and to be blessed by the elders, parents, and anyone significant in their lives. There were a handful of touching moments and plenty of tears shared amongst each other. After Laura and Adrian were congratulated by their family, they changed from the traditional Vietnamese wedding attire back to their wedding dress and suits for their second wedding ceremony. While the wedding party finished their last touches, their guests eagerly waited to see Laura and Adrian! After the wedding party made their way to the alter, all eyes were glued onto Laura and she gracefully walked down the aisle with her dad. While everyone’s eyes were concentrated on Laura, Laura’s eyes only looked towards Adrian as he patiently waited. A few fond words were exchanged between each other during the wedding ceremony and vows were made and sealed with a kiss. Laura and Adrian looked rather relieved once the pressure of the formalities were finished and kicked off their reception with hugs and a toast with all their guests!

The details of the wedding reception from the floral arrangements, centerpieces, to the cake were done to perfection. Every little bit of detail were checked and rechecked again before the wedding guests were reintroduced to the outdoor reception area. With everyone settled down, Laura and Adrian made their grand entrance and partied the night away. There were plenty of speeches, some embarrassing moments, but all were moments to remember. Without further delay, sit back and get comfortable for Laura and Adrian’s wedding photography highlights!

All I have to say about my next wedding couple is that they are one of the cutest pair ever. Aside from Shannen’s love of Hello Kitty throughout their house, their humble abode was so tastefully decorated. Every detail of their house was taken with rather specific attention. They have the cutest house with a nice garden to match the attire. Their tasteful and cute house matched their personalities rather accurately. You can see their house through the wedding photos below to be your own judge. Aside from their home, they kept their wedding as simple and enjoyable as possible. Everyone started bright and early with an intimate tea ceremony at their house with a select few of their closest relatives. Afterward, we all took off around Alhambra and San Gabriel to take a series of really fun wedding photos. Through their portrait session, I just had to photo bomb one of their wedding pictures. I think I pulled it off quite nicely!

Once their wedding portrait session concluded, we all headed toward a local banquet hall in Alhambra to get the party started! Everyone attended were dressed to impressed and ready to mingle. There were plenty of hugs, laughter, and excitement throughout the night. To keep their wedding guests constantly entertained during the reception, there were a handful of games that were played that involved not only Shannen and Ting, but a few brave volunteers from the audience to get the crowd cheering. I had to admit that some of the games were for adults only as you will also see that below in their wedding gallery. Once dinner wrapped up and finished, everyone jumped on their dance floor and showed off their best moves. Enjoy.

Los Angeles Wedding Photography

I dig the non-traditional red shoes to compliment her wedding dress!

Stayin’ cool while lookin’ cool~

All I have to say for the next wedding photo was…wow (I tip my hat to you, my friend)

This kid was really feelin’ the music!

Congratulations again to the both of you, love birds. It was an honor to be your wedding photographer!

I must say, my beautiful couple for this wedding blog entry seriously knew how to throw down a party! From beginning to end, the energy these two gave out throughout the wedding was nothing less of amazing. I met Jennifer for the first time during my visit to New York on one extremely cold January and we kicked off nicely with her band of crazy friends. I am not going to get into detail about what happened in New York, but let us just say it was definitely a memorable one. Years after our first encounter, I was honored when she picked me to photograph her lovely wedding, especially in my side of the country where it is a bit warmer! Overall, this wedding trumped all the crazy shenanigans we did in New York.

Jennifer and Cyrus’ big day started off with the girls off in their side of the Ranch with makeup and hairspray in the air. My dear friend Gina (MOH) kept the spirit up with her awesome karaoke to Pandora that streamed in the background. The boys definitely had a different approach to a relaxing morning. It consisted with polishing a nice bottle of Glenlivet (18 year of course) and discussion of how to improve their Magic the Gathering decks. I was able to relate just nicely since I revolved a good portion of my teenage years with that card game. Once both sides of the wedding party were prepped up and ready to rock, we started their wedding photography session before their ceremony. The ranch hand plenty of colorful locations for there photos. One after another, we snapped away and recorded the “money shots” and everything in between when they goofed off throughout the day. Their wedding ceremony was short, sweet, and had a few tears along the way. Once the first ceremony was over, Jennifer and Cyrus kept it traditional with some beautifully colored Korean outfits while they honored the parents and elders.

At the time of their wedding, the popular song, Gangnam Style by PSY, was made hits all over the airwaves. What better way to make a grand entrance than to dance to that song! It surprised everything even myself since this was actually the first time I have heard of this song. I suppose I am more of an Oldies Beatles kind of guy, but I must admit that song had a really catchy beat! Their dance worked up an appetite and everyone’s adrenaline settled down, everyone mingled, enjoyed dinner, and shared some touching speeches throughout the night. Once the itinerary was all wrapped up and finished, the party really started…might be overboard, but that is a matter of perspective. Let us just say the wedding party ended up partying in the pool at the end of the night. I will let their wedding photos tell the rest of the story. Enjoy!